


Pulled Beneath the Temporal Flow

by UnintendedTrustfall



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst, Anxiety, Grief, Hurt/Comfort, Killer Frost - Freeform, Mini Stroke, Nosebleed, The Flash 3x18, Vibe vs Killer Frost, Vibing, headache, idk i'm bad at tags, mentions of Dante Ramon - Freeform, temporal flow, vibe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-04
Updated: 2017-05-30
Packaged: 2018-10-14 17:36:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10541280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnintendedTrustfall/pseuds/UnintendedTrustfall
Summary: Used to be called: Full-On Vibe versus Killer FrostSpoilers from 3x18 because it's set shortly after.Ignoring what Wells said before about getting pulled under the temporal flow if you don't know where you're vibing to, Cisco does it to try and track down Killer Frost.What he sees is not what he expected.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> SPOILERS FROM 3x18

" _Word of warning: Vibing blind, it's like surfing a monster wave. You need to stay above the temporal flow, otherwise your consciousness can get sucked under."_

* * *

 

" _All_ we know is eventually, she's going to fight you, only we don't know when..." Barry sighed, running his hands through his hair, "I mean, where did it happen? Could you see any, I don't know, like, landmarks?"

Cisco shook his head, heart breaking.

"No. No, it was, uh... it was just us fighting in like... the woods, or something. It was snowing, but I mean, Caitlin could've done that, that still doesn't tell us when... dammit! I wish I could've just seen more..." Cisco froze, realization flooding into his eyes, "of it..."

"Cisco? What's up, you got something?" Wally said, watching Cisco work this out with a combination of hope and concern.

"You remember when I vibed where Grodd was gonna show up in Central City?! I just made that happen, I didn't--"

"Woah, Cisco," Iris said, glancing at Barry and H.R. before looking back to Cisco, "That could've... what did Wells say? 'Suck your consciousness under'?"

"Yes, yeah, that if you vibe blind you could get pulled under the temporal flow--" H.R. repeated with the confidence as if he  _were_ the real Wells.

"Okay, H.R. what does that mean?!" Iris pressed.

"I don't know! But he said it can happen," he turned to face Cisco again, "Cisco, we don't know what this means. I mean, maybe, you could get trapped in between timelines, you could end up somewhere else, at least last time you knew _where_ you were going, do you know how many trees there are in this country, let alone the planet, I mean, you don't even know if it was on this Earth!"

"Do we have any other leads?!" Cisco snapped, spinning around facing all of them, "No. And if I can do something that might help us find her, I'm gonna do it. I told her..." Cisco's voice wavered, got softer, "I told her last time that I wouldn't leave her out there."

Cisco turned away, putting on his glasses, "And I'm not gonna leave her out there now."

"Cisco--!"

The world flashed out of view around him and the familiar blue light flooded through his mind's eye, and he found himself floating in the vibrations of the universe.

_Focus on, Caitlin. Focus on that fight._

He returned the vibe he'd seen before. Vibe sending vibrational waves at Killer Frost as she threw gusts of freezing wind at him.

_Okay, rewind. How'd you get here. Maybe that'll tell you something..._

He watched a breach open up in the woods. He and Killer Frost tumbled out.

_Shit. They really could be anywhere._

_Woah, woah, woah, don't think like that. Don't get lost. Stay above the temporal flow, c'mon, Cisco. Okay, okay... where did you open the breach from?_

He could distantly hear Barry, Iris, and H.R. They sounded concerned. Cisco felt the all too familiar throb in his head as pushed farther into the vibe. He felt blood trickling out of his nose.

_Stay on target, Cisco._

He saw a the breach closing-- or opening in reverse. His hand outstretched. The waves of the breach shimmering before him.

"Cisco, I don't wanna hurt you," Killer Frost said, her voice wobbly and distant in the vibe, "You need to stop, this isn't going to fix you!"

_This isn't going to fix you._

_What the fuck did that mean?_

"You don't know that!" Cisco's voice reverberated through the vibe as he opened up the breach, and launched himself through it. Killer Frost-- _Caitlin_ followed suit.

He followed through, already realizing what he didn't want to know. It wasn't Killer Frost versus Vibe... it was Caitlin trying to stop Cisco.

 _You don't know how powerful you are_.

Reverb's words rang in Cisco's head. He knew blood was gushing from his nose, but he couldn't feel it. He couldn't feel anything anymore. The vibe was disappearing. Everything was melting together.

_Find your way back, Cisco, find your way back-!_

Trapped in here you can't hurt them. You can't turn into Reverb if you're stuck between dimensions.

Cisco took a deep breath, and allowed himself to be pulled under.

* * *

 

"No, no, NO!" Barry was pacing, hands gripping his hair.

Cisco had started going down some five minutes ago as blood started pouring from his nose. Iris had ripped the glasses off, but Cisco continued vibing, eyes open, staring out big and unfocused into something the others could not see.

Barry and Wally had taken Cisco to the med bay at this point, still a mess from when they'd left it yesterday when Killer Frost had escaped.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not a huge fan of my writing style in these two chapters but I'm really into telling this story so I'll try to improve the writing next chapter as I churn out this story.
> 
> Let me know what you think, lovelies <3

Part of Cisco was panicking, realizing, you did it. You got pulled under. You're trapped beneath the temporal flow, whatever the fuck that meant exactly.

But another part of him-- a much, much smaller part, mind you-- thought maybe this was for the best. It was a little bit selfish; he didn't want to live in a world where Caitlin was forced to live as Killer Frost, where he'd never be able to reach her. But apparently, he was doing everyone else a favor as well. If Caitlin's Killer Frost persona was moral enough to recognize what a danger to everyone Cisco had become, then he couldn't risk what he might become.

He breathed in. And out. Deep and steady. Thought, maybe he'd die in here.

_But what if you're already dead?_

His heart started racing and he threw a vibrational wave at what seemed like it might be a wall to his right. The blast just disappeared off into the distance of the nothingness.

Cisco started screaming.

* * *

Barry was pacing again, gripping his hair in his fingers. Killer Frost was out there somewhere. Cisco had been pulled beneath the temporal flow. And without him, they couldn't even hazard a guess where Caitlin was. Or where any threat was.

It wasn't until that moment that he realized how frequently they used Cisco's vibes to track metas.

"Okay, hold on a minute, I mean he can't be trapped forever, it's like a head space, isn't it?" Iris said, looking from Cisco's unblinking form to Wally and H.R., "We've snapped him out of vibes before, this can't be that much different--"

"I don't know, but..." H.R. struggled to find words, "Look, I'm not... I'm not the Dr. Wells you've had in the past, I don't know the theoretical possibilities of meta activity, but what I _do_ know is that the temporal flow is ongoing. It is _time_. It's changing every second, all on the same line-- the same _timeline_... the timeline that's parallel to all the others, and if you get pulled under that, you'd be nowhere. You're not within a conceivable space or time, you're just... lost."

H.R. looked up, heavy hearted, to find Iris with tears in her eyes. Barry hadn't even looked up from the seat he'd sunk hopelessly into. Wally just took it all in, the full horror of this thing clear in his eyes.

"I think the only way Cisco can get back," H.R. said, his voice low, flat, "Is if he pulls himself out."

* * *

Caitlin hadn't needed to master her powers, they'd come naturally to her.

She heard her cold, icy voice cutting people apart as she made her demands at banks and jewelers. It's not like she needed all this wealth necessarily, but she needed an income. And why not treat herself to the good life, if she could scare it out of people?

She had money, she had looks, and she most definitely had powers. And she still had her brains and they had told her to leave Central City. Cisco and Barry would never stop looking for her if they caught wind of her stirring up trouble there. Not to mention they already had her-- or Earth-2 Caitlin's-- rap sheet there.

So she left Central City, didn't even try Star City, and she took off to take on cities that didn't even know her name. Yet.

But while her power had largely taken her compassion from her, the loneliness of her new life was something she wished she could freeze her heart to too.

And then one night, sleeping cold and alone in a penthouse she'd booked for herself, she heard radio static. She sat straight up. Her room didn't even have a radio in it. A faint, glowing blue light appeared by her window.

She rose from her bed, and she said, half irritated by the fact that he'd found her, and half horrified by how dead his faint voice sounded,

"...Cisco?"


	3. Chapter 3

"...Cisco?"

The blueish light was flickering in and out of view. Cisco's voice was strained and barely audible through the breach. His hand finally reached through and his face came into view. He looked like shit.

But Killer Frost didn't have it in her to care much about that.

"What are you doing here?" She said coldly.

"I'm..." his voice was coming through in short, broken bursts. Like there was a bad connection. "Caitlin--! Lis..ten to..."

"Where the hell are you Vibe Boy? It looks like your powers aren't all you think--"

"LISTEN TO ME!" His voice reverberated out of the breach, "I don't have time! This is hard enough to keep open as it is-- Caitlin--"

"Killer Frost--"

"I know you! I know... that you wanted to become a doctor because you wanted to be there for people like your mother wasn't for you! I know that you can be cold... " he paused and gave a weak kind of smirk,"no pun intended... but you still care about people. Like you cared about Ronnie."

Caitlin looked down at her feet, single tear leaking out and freezing on her cheek.

"I know you didn't want to become like her, you told me you'd rather die than to be saved using your powers, rather than become Killer Frost--"

"THEN YOU DID THIS, CISCO!"

"I DIDN'T!" Cisco yelled back but his voice was breaking off, losing power through the breach that was wavering, threatning to fail, "I didn't... but... look, it doesn't matter, okay? Because I know that you're stronger than Killer Frost, Caitlin! And if you want to beat her--"

He was cut off as the breach flickered out and disappeared.

Caitlin stared into the empty space that Cisco had just occupied.

* * *

 

The blueish glow around Cisco was sharper now. It looked a lot like the electricity Zoom had given off. But aside from the passing flashes of blue, he was in total darkness. The only thing that filled the void were voices. Whispering voices, screaming voices, voices from different timelines, voices from memories, voices from nightmares.

No matter how hard he focused, he couldn't cling to a single voice long enough to vibe himself to that moment.

_"This is first degree frost bite, your brother could recover with proper treatment, if not, all his tendons, blood vessels, and nerves will freeze. His fingers will need to be amputated."_

Blood gushed from his nose.

_"You're pathetic."_

_"You're small, Cisco. You've always been small. Reverb told you that you could've been a god. But instead you'd rather work as... tech support."_

Cisco held his head, trying to shut out the voices. Stop vibing. Make it stop. But he couldn't.

_"The MRI I did of your brain shows changes in the capillary morphology similar to that of a mini-stroke... I wouldn't try an intra-dimensional breach like that anytime soon."_

_"Dante was alive, healthy and happy, until Barry created Flashpoint. When he reset things, that's what killed him. Barry is the reason your brother is dead."_

_"I WILL NOT LOSE MY BROTHER AGAIN!"_

Cisco couldn't hold it in anymore. He was screaming.

* * *

 

It had been about three weeks since Cisco had tried to find Caitlin. They had him hooked up to an IV drip with feeding tubes in his nose, just keeping him alive until they could figure out how to wake him up. 

Twice now, they'd had to give him blood transfusions to stabilize him when his nosebleeds sent him into hypovolemic shock. He'd shake and sweat and bleed, pale and sick looking. Barry couldn't bear to watch him all the time anymore. For the first few days, he hadn't left the lab, terrified he'd lose someone else. But Julian seemed capable of keeping Cisco's vitals in check whereas Barry could not, so what use was he to this city if he was too busy watching over Cisco to help anyone else?

Wally had told him at first if he need a break from being The Flash to go check on Cisco, that he'd handle it, and call over Jesse Quick if he needed help. But after a week went by, Wally was more worried that Barry was spending all his time at the lab blaming himself for Cisco and Caitlin's current predicaments. So, he asked Barry to get back out there with him.

Still, whenever Barry was in the lab, he'd ask Julian, habitually, not even out of hope anymore because his supply of that had pretty much run dry, if Cisco's condition had changed. It never had.

Barry wouldn't go in anymore. But Wally would talk to him. Mainly just talking to pass the time in hopes that Cisco might wake up while he was there. He'd gotten pretty good at talking to people who couldn't really answer during the end with his mother. Sometimes talking to Cisco would remind him of that and he'd have to leave. 

Next Iris would go in, encouraging Cisco to wake up. Telling him that he was strong enough to do it. Her experience had come from when Barry had been in a coma. She found it easier to do than Wally, because Barry had eventually woken up. Francine hadn't.

H.R. had tried, but he'd always preferred a more responsive audience. He tried to be there for Cisco, when he could. But sometimes he couldn't. 

Unfortunately, weeks later when Cisco gasped himself awake, no one was there.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I know I haven't updated in forever but I'm gonna try and get back into it now. Sorry for the wait, lovelies 

Caitlin didn't know why she was returning to Central City. She didn't know why she'd listened to Cisco. She didn't know why the mention of Ronnie had managed to get to her.

All she did know was that Team Flash had better be ready for Killer Frost.

* * *

  
" _Allen?!"_

Barry had answered the phone hoping, but not really believing that Julian had good news. But the dead panic in his voice suggested otherwise.

"Julian? What's the matter, what's going on?"

" _Cisco's gone!_ "

Barry's heart dropped. He felt sick. Like he wanted to scream.

"...He's dead?"

" _What? No! No, Allen, I mean he's gone, I mean he up and vanished!"_

"What? How-?!"

" _I don't bloody well know how! There's a trail of blood from the bed but it stops right in the middle of the room--_ "

"He opened a breach." Barry breathed. Barry froze. It was exactly what he hadn't wanted to believe. "Okay, I'm on my way!"

* * *

  
Caitlin had only just gotten over the bridge, back to the city when a breach opened up before her. She stopped her car-- or, the one she'd stolen, rather-- to keep from getting sucked in.

Cisco landed in front of her, blood gushing from his nose.

She felt her remaining humanity tug at her as she watched him stagger out. Wavering. Stumbling. Holding his head with one hand as he wiped the blood from his face with the other.

"...Cisco?"

He finally looked at her. He was sweaty and pale, and she couldn't see his eyes behind his Vibe goggles but she could only imagine they reflected the same dead expression his thin line of a mouth did.

"Caitlin Snow," He called out in a gravelly, tone that was so chilling that it didn't sound like Cisco at all, "I knew you'd come back."

* * *

  
Barry crouched on the floor in the medbay, examining the blood trail.

"Why's he doing this?!" He said finally, his voice hollow and broken.

Julian shrugged, defeated.

"Maybe it's like he said before. Maybe he's still trying to find Caitlin."

"Guys?!" Iris had just come running into the room, Wally and H.R. close behind her, "Your meta human heat sensor app is going crazy over by the bridge. I think it's her. I think Caitlin's back."

"I have to go." Barry said, pulling up his hood, "If Caitlin's there, Cisco's probably on his way if he isn't there already--"

"I'm coming with you," Wally said, zipping up his own suit, "You can't fight both of them."

Barry blinked, "'Both'?"

"Cisco's got powers too, Barry. And Cisco's..." Wally trailed off for a moment, seeming to be thinking about something else. He was. "Cisco's not... himself right now, he's sick, okay? And we don't know how he's--"

"He's not gonna--!"

"Guys!" Iris interrupted, tapping the meta human monitor, "Something's going on down there."

* * *

  
Caitlin ducked behind a parked car, Cisco's vibrational blast going soaring over her head. His nose was still gushing blood with the strain of all the power he was using, but he seemed unfazed.

But the more he bled, the weaker he got, and Caitlin could feel her compassion coming back. She was watching one of her closest friends send his brain into a systematic overload and she wasn't sure he could recover from it this time.  
  
She had cared about Cisco. They'd been together for years. And he was in danger. His life was in danger.

Just like Ronnie's had been.

"Cisco! You've gotta stop, you're gonna kill yourself!" Caitlin shouted, throwing an icy mist in his direction in hopes of slowing him down. It didn't really. He just kept staggering, throwing vibrational blasts in her general direction.

"CISCO! CAITLIN!"

Caitlin whipped around. Barry and Wally had arrived. Oh, great.

Cisco didn't respond. Verbally, at least. But physically-- or rather, metaphysically-- he answered by shooting a concentrated series of vibrations at Barry and Wally who were both blown backwards.

"Cisco--" Caitlin began, hands raised, frosted air coming off of them, but Cisco interrupted her.

"It's Vibe."

 


	5. Chapter 5

Caitlin went flying as Cisco's vibrational blast shook the street, cracking the pavement as it came down. Caitlin transformed the moisture in the air into snow to break her fall, but Cisco wasn't done yet.

"Cisco--" Barry began, stumbling back to his feet but he was cut off, letting out a pained, high pitched, warbled noise from his throat as Cisco sped up the vibrations of his vocal cords.

Barry closed his mouth, trying to stop himself from making a sound because aside from how silly it sounded, his vocal cords were swelling at an alarming rate.

Even Caitlin, so detached and frozen off from her usual self could hear it and automatically thought: _very serious laryngitis_. Which, Barry could heal from, but it was starting to sound like his vocal cords were moving at a speed that they were starting to shred themselves apart.

"Cisc--! VIBE." Caitlin called out, and he released Barry's vocal cords, and turned back to her.

"Killer Frost," Cisco said, slowly, monotoned. Just like Reverb. "Although from what I've heard, you haven't done much killing yet. Just a... frost bite and hypothermia epidemic all up the coast."

He seemed to be effectively ignoring his nosebleed because despite the fact that blood was gushing down his face, he looked deadlier than Caitlin had ever even imagined he could be. He stalked slowly toward her, and her cold heart pounded in response.

"You're a doctor," he said, "You know that the average heart rate is one hundred beats per minute, don't you, Dr. Snow?"

She didn't say anything.

"That's about 1.67 Hz. That's the normal vibrational frequency of your heart." He continued, almost smiling as he delivered this fun fact, "Its only when it... raises..." her heart pounded harder, "Above one hundred... beats per minute... or 1.67 Hz... that you're in danger."

She could feel her heart racing, faster than she though possible and she sank to her knees, clutching at her heart.

"Cisc..." she choked, "Cisco?"

"That's only 3.33 Hz, Dr. Snow. You can't take a vigorous workout?"

She could feel her body heating up and she combatted it, compensating by sending an icy chill through her veins. Freezing her heart. Cutting it off to Cisco's vibrational alterations. He looked up at her and saw her eyes glowing bright white as the cold swept through her.

He smiled at her and he said, "There it is." He walked slowly towards her, "You've proven your frost, Dr. Snow, now show me... _Killer_."

Caitlin felt the freezing surge through her veins and she threw an icy blast and it hit him square in the chest. He toppled backwards and for a split second, Caitlin felt her remaining humanity screaming: _you killed him! You killed your best friend!_

But she hadn't. A dark, twisted laugh that sounded nothing like Cisco returned her to the present. Cisco sat up, blood gushing down over his mouth and chin. His Vibe goggles had been knocked off in the blast and she could see his eyes now. They looked dead. No emotion. _Like you're supposed to be_ , Killer Frost's voice whispered. He looked like he hadn't slept in weeks. Maybe he hadn't.

"Cisco!" Barry called out. His voice sounded hoarse and raw.

Cisco didn't even look back at him. He just raised a hand and sent Barry flying backwards across the street. _Well, one less thing_ , Caitlin thought coldly.

She turned back to face Cisco just in time to see a vibrational blast coming for her and she shot a stream of ice to fight it. They collided, but unlike last time, Cisco's blast shattered her icy blast with no trouble at all.

She felt her heart racing again. This was it. This was where she'd die. This was--

Cisco went flying as a flash of yellow knocked him into the side of the bridge.

Wally had finally regained consciousness. And returned the favor to Cisco who was out cold. He scooped Cisco up over his shoulder and ran him back to STAR labs.

* * *

  
When Cisco woke up, this time someone was there.

"You know I've never vibed you before," Cisco said evenly as he picked himself up off the floor in the meta human cell, "I wonder why that is, Kid Flash?"

Wally stood on the other side of the glass, arms crossed, and said,

"You're sick, Cisco. This isn't--"

"I'm more powerful than I've ever been!" Cisco laughed, "I can control the vibrations of every cell in your body and--"

"Something is _wrong_ with you!" Wally cut him off, tears welling in his eyes, "And I'm not gonna let you cut yourself off from... from everyone who cares about you... before something happens to you... before it's too late."

Cisco stopped and he studied Wally silently.

"That's what happened to your mother." Cisco said and it cut like a knife, "And you think if you save me... or Caitlin... or anybody... that it'll make up for the time you didn't spend with her. When she was all alone."

"Stop it." Wally whispered, tears finally escaping.

"You stopped going to see her,"

"Just shut up..."

"You thought she was selfish. You thought she did this _to_ you, when all she really wanted--"

"Just shut the fuck up!"

"Was for you to stay with her, even when she said she didn't. She wanted somebody to _care_ \-- "

Wally pounded a fist against the glass, rage flowing through his body, tears running down his face as he screamed, "SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

Cisco smiled and sat down. He was pale and sweaty from blood loss. But literally nothing seemed to faze him anymore.

"...What happened to you in there?" Wally asked quietly, swallowing the rage that fought to get out, "What happened when you were trapped between dimensions?"

That caught Cisco off guard. He flinched. Every screaming voice from the timelines came back in his head.

He stared off into the temporal flow and saw Dante from that Christmas years before. He had a bottle of whiskey: " _what'd you say, hermano?_ "

"Cisco?" Wally said, staring at Cisco who was lost in his head again.

"Dante..."

Wally looked at Cisco and realized the horrors that must've tormented Cisco when he'd been trapped down there. This past year had not been easy for Cisco, and from Wally had heard about STAR labs and the original "Dr. Wells", it had been a rough past few years for him, at least.

"You're not trapped anymore..." Wally began cautiously, "You're here. On Earth... whatever. Dante's gone but we're all here... you're not alone, Cisco."

Cisco snapped his head back to focus on Wally. He smiled a crooked smile as a fresh stream of blood traveled out his nostril and down across his lip. He flinched again as the pain in his head intensified as the perceptions of every perceivable dimension hit him all at once.

The voices from every timeline were screaming again. Talking over each other; every image his mind conjured was fighting to be seen, fighting to be heard.

He tapped his head, still smiling and said,

"I can never be alone again, Kid Flash."

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter but we're setting up for the climax, so... give it a minute, next chapter shit's gonna happen.

_You've proven your frost, Dr. Snow, now show me... **Killer**._

Forced to cool herself down after Cisco-- no... that wasn't Cisco... not really. After _he_ had almost sped up the natural vibrations of her heart, Caitlin felt her empathy slipping away again. Cisco, not Cisco, it didn't matter, next time she saw him, she'd stop him. One way or another.

* * *

  
"No, no, no, not again-- IRIS!! JULIAN!!" Wally was screaming.

Cisco seized, blood and foam dribbling from his mouth, pooling in the indent of his neck.

Iris and Barry came running first, but Julian, followed quickly by H.R., wasn't far behind.

"My god," Julian said under his breath, "He's-- he's... I can see through him, is that--"

"This happened before," Barry said quickly, "When, uh... when the timeline ruptured, but I don't--" Barry turned about, starting to panic, "I don't know what he did! I don't know what he changed!"

"We need Caitlin--" Julian began but Iris cut him off.

"Cynthia. She has the same powers as Cisco, she could... she might know what to do!" Iris said, and she turned to Barry, "Didn't Cisco make you some kind of tech so you could reach her if you guys needed to--?"

  
H.R. snapped his fingers, pointing from Iris to Barry, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe she can, I don't know, find out wherever he's stuck and pull him out-- MAYBE, she can tell us how to... to..."

"To get him back." Wally finished softly.

* * *

  
The blueish glow of the space between dimensions and between timelines flashed around Cisco as he drifted, directionless through space and time. He thought maybe this would be better.

He couldn't hurt anyone in here. He couldn't risk anyone's life in here. He wouldn't have to live without Dante in here. Given enough time, he guessed, he wouldn't have to live at all.

He was giving in. The blue around him was beginning to flicker out. _Just let go,_ _Cisco_ , a familiar voice whispered in his mind, _just let go and we can be together_ _again_.

We?

His vision, or perception, at least, was tunneling. Darkness ate up the corners of his sight and the familiar voice said, _let_ _go and we can be brothers again_.

Dante.

Cisco shook his head. It wasn't real, that wasn't really Dante. The voice answered him: _it will never really be Dante._

It wouldn't.

Dante was dead. And no matter how many alternate realities Cisco vibed, it never mattered because it was never really Dante.

 _Let go, hermano_.

The last scrap of blue light was flickering out-- and then a blast of red light flooded the space and just as his eyes rolled back, he felt himself being ripped back.


	7. Chapter 7

"What do you want, Cynthia?" Cisco said, his voice was low and gravelly. Barely audible.

The red glow that illuminated the space between dimensions had been hers. She had vibed herself to him. He could barely see her as he felt himself disappearing, but he knew it was her. He could feel it.

"Your force is fading."

She wasn't wrong. But as much as Cisco wanted to stop Killer Frost, as much as he wanted to find a way to get Dante back, as much as he wanted to fix what _he_ himself had done-- he couldn't care enough. He couldn't care at all.

Like Reverb.

"Cisco," Cynthia continued, "You have to stop. You have to pull yourself out of this or you're gonna--"

"What?" Cisco rounded on her, saw bits and pieces of her fade in and out of view, "Die? I don't care. Just let me go."

Cynthia grabbed him forcefully by the front of his jacket, "Don't you get it?! You're not gonna 'go' _anywhere_! If you die in between dimensions, you don't die! You're stuck!"

He shrugged at her, "What does it matter?"

"LOOK AT ME," she said, and there was the same amount of force and volume behind it but it had softened. And she let go of his jacket. And he could finally see her, "Cisco, you're being pulled beneath the temporal flow, but you're not gone. Yet. But you have to stop this. You have to live, you have to find a reason to live because you don't want to be trapped down there."

Cisco looked her in the eyes. He saw the pain there. He recognized it. And he said,

"Is that what happened to them? Your partner?" Cisco said, his voice as dead and calculated as Reverb's, "Did Kadabra trap them under the temporal flow?"

She flinched, but her resolve didn't falter. She reached out cautiously, touching Cisco's cheek with her hand. She said gently,

"You can still save them, Cisco. You can save all of them."

Dante was the first one to come to mind. But she couldn't have known about him. Except that she could. And she could see what he saw and think what he thought and she knew he was thinking about Dante. And as honestly as she'd said it, she looked in his eyes and she nodded.

" _All_ of them."

Images of Cisco's childhood. When he was in college. When he'd gotten drunk with Dante. When they'd fought, when they'd talked, when they'd laughed, when he'd died-- it all came rushing back.

Dante's first professional piano recital. Cisco's college graduation. That Christmas and the bottle of whiskey. Dante's birthday party that he'd taken... Caitlin to.

Cisco clung to that memory. That day. He was going to save them.

The blue glow surrounded him again and he let go.

* * *

  
He felt a jolt in his chest as he returned to the present. Julian had stopped the seizing and, for now, the bleeding had stopped. He felt fucking terrible.

He was sweaty and pale from the blood loss, and the weakness and fatigue from the past few days threatened to put him under again. But a slap across the face forced him to focus and he scrambled to sit up. Holding his cheek he looked around wildly for the offender and found most of Team Flash standing over him, while Cynthia crouched in front of him, shaking the sting out of the hand that had just hit his face.

"God _damn_ , you ever heard of smelling salts, girl?"

She smiled at him and everyone visibly breathed a deep sigh of relief.

Barry and Wally were on either side of him, helping him to his feet. They sat him down and Barry said, "Holy-- thank god, you're back... I thought-- we thought--"

Cisco scanned the room, taking count of everyone. Barry, Wally, Iris, H.R., Julian...

"Caitlin... Where is she? Did she get away?!" He asked desperately.

Barry opened his mouth to respond and closed it. He turned away and Wally said,

"We couldn't... we couldn't get to her... yeah, she got away."

Cisco stared back at Wally, but Wally turned away awkwardly. It was then that Cisco realized they couldn't catch her because of him. That she'd gotten away because of him.

He sank back in his seat, running a hand through his hair.

"Shit..." he whispered, "How the hell will we find her now?"

Cynthia rolled her eyes and said,

"You have powers, Cisco. Concentrate. If you use your--"

"Guys?" Iris said suddenly, cutting her off, "I don't think you'll need that..."

Killer Frost walked into the Cortex, and smiled at them.

"Well, well, well..." she drawled, eyeing them all, "Team Flash together again."

 


End file.
